Dai Huabin lowered his head and caught those two soft lips with perfect accuracy.
Mm!
Zhu Lu's body tensed sharply, then quickly softened, like a pool of spring water.
This wasn't a fleeting touch, but a long, possessive kiss.
The young man's breath invaded her territory with force, claiming her as his, yet carrying a trace of tenderness in the smallest details.
Zhu Lu felt as though something had exploded inside her head. She was dizzy, unable to think, and could only respond instinctively, clumsily and inexperienced.
The air in the room seemed to grow several degrees warmer.
After a long while,
when they were both breathing hard, Dai Huabin finally released her, reluctant to let go.
Looking at the young woman in his arms, her big eyes misty and her lips swollen red, Dai Huabin's Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed the restless fire in his heart.
Now wasn't the time.
It wasn't that Dai Huabin was especially proper or some upright gentleman. They still had important business to attend to today.
Dai Huabin glanced at the clock on the wall.
One thirty in the afternoon.
Judging by the time, that cross-dressing person should be arriving soon.
"Come on. Let's eat first, then head back to the academy."
Dai Huabin took a deep breath, swung his legs off the bed, and casually picked up the jacket beside him and draped it over his shoulders. His movements were smooth and effortless, giving no hint that he'd just been lost in the beauty of the moment.
Zhu Lu was still caught up in the afterglow of that kiss and couldn't quite come back to herself.
She sat up in a daze, straightened her rumpled clothes, and looked both puzzled and reluctant to let the moment end.
"We're... going back already?"
Zhu Lu asked without thinking, her voice soft and husky, enough to make anyone's ears tingle.
Though reason told her that going back now was the right thing to do, a faint sense of disappointment stirred in her heart.
"What? Haven't had enough cuddling?"
Dai Huabin fastened his buttons and glanced back at her with a teasing smile.
"If you haven't had enough, I could sneak into your dorm tonight."
"Who... who hasn't had enough!"
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Zhu Lu instantly bristled and sprang up from the bed.
"Besides, I have a roommate!"
"Alright, alright. We'll cuddle some other time."
Dai Huabin didn't call her out. He walked over and naturally took her hand.
"We have serious business to take care of this afternoon."
"Serious business?"
Zhu Lu blinked in confusion. "Is there anything more important than cultivation?"
Dai Huabin smiled mysteriously but didn't explain.
Of course there was.
For instance, exposing that cross-dressing girl named Wang Dong.
According to the original timeline, Wang Dong, the girl pretending to be a boy, should be enrolling within the next couple of days.
If she moved into Dorm 108 along the course of events, it would be hard to curb Huo Yuhao's growth.
Haodong Power—that was a hundred-percent Martial Soul Fusion between the two of them.
Dai Huabin was confident he could suppress Huo Yuhao through his foreknowledge from this life and his own efforts, but he wasn't a masochist. If he could separate the two of them, why leave them together to make trouble for himself?
As long as Wang Dong didn't live with Huo Yuhao, the chances of the two crossing paths would drop considerably.
Even if they ended up with a Martial Soul Fusion Skill later, at least Dai Huabin would have slowed their progress.
"What are you spacing out for? Weren't you hungry?"
Zhu Lu's voice pulled Dai Huabin from his thoughts.
"Yeah. Come on, I'll take you somewhere good." Dai Huabin gathered his thoughts and gave her little hand a squeeze.
The two found a well-regarded Soul Master restaurant near the hotel and devoured a whole table of food.
There was no denying it—dual cultivation really was hard work.
Zhu Lu usually ate like a cat to maintain her figure, but today she broke with tradition and ate two bowls of rice, much to Dai Huabin's amusement.
At three in the afternoon, the two returned to Shrek Academy.
The new student registration area at Shrek Academy was absolutely bustling.
Summer was drawing to a close, but the heat still lingered in the air, and the line stretched as far as the eye could see.
For the senior students in charge of registration, it was a true test of patience.
"Next! Move it!"
The student handling registration was Senior Li, a third-year student in a yellow uniform. He was tapping his pen impatiently against a form, his face practically screaming, "I want to go home."
A boy stood in front of the desk.
He was strikingly good-looking.
His short, powder-blue hair was neatly combed back, his skin so tender it looked like you could pinch water from it, and his big eyes shone like a pair of flawless blue sapphires. As he blinked, several girls in the surrounding line secretly swallowed.
"Name."
"Wang Dong." The boy's voice was crisp, tinged with arrogance.
"Martial Soul."
"Light Goddess Butterfly."
Senior Li's pen stopped.
He looked up, his brows knitting into a deep frown as he scrutinized the fair-skinned young student, suspicion and impatience in his eyes.
"What was that? Light Goddess Butterfly?"
Senior Li picked at his ear.
"I've heard of the Radiant Sacred Dragon and the Radiant Tiger, but a butterfly... and a goddess butterfly at that? Is there even a Martial Soul like that on the continent?"
Another upperclassman helping with registration came over and snickered.
"Hey, kid, you didn't make that name up yourself just because it sounds nice, did you? Shrek Academy is the number one academy on the continent. You can't get away with faking things here."
"Exactly. The younger students these days are so dishonest. They'll make up any name just to grab attention."
A few snickers rose from the people in line nearby.
Wang Dong's delicate face flushed instantly—not with embarrassment, but with anger.
At home, she was the apple of everyone's eye. When had she ever faced such doubts?
"Just because you've never heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist! You're ignorant!"
Wang Dong slammed her hand onto the desk, her powder-blue eyes seeming to blaze with real fire.
"Open your eyes and look carefully!"
Before her voice had even faded, a dazzling blue-and-gold radiance burst out from behind her without warning.
In that instant, the registration area, which had been buzzing moments earlier, fell as silent as if someone had pressed a mute button.
A pair of enormous wings spread out behind Wang Dong.
They looked like nothing that belonged in the mortal world.
Their wingspan stretched over two meters, and their entire surface shimmered in a dazzling blue. Rings of golden light ran across them like flowing sunlight.
As the wings gently beat, flecks of golden light drifted down, transforming the hot air around them into something dreamlike.
Beautiful.
Utterly beautiful.
Senior Li, who had been impatient moments before, let his pen clatter to the ground. His mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.
The new students and their parents watching nearby all stared, wide-eyed. Some even rubbed their eyes, wondering if the heat had made them hallucinate.
This was the Light Goddess Butterfly.
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